by Mya Kagan (whyzz writer) >> more about the author

In addition to other feelings and emotions, whether or not animals are able to feel sad is something that scientists are still studying.

While some scientists' research does not support that idea that animals can be sad, many scientists have other research which shows they can! Studies have found that animals such as chimpanzees will show sad behaviors (like not playing or sitting apart from their group) when another animal passes away. Animals are also often known to make excited sounds when seeing a friend, which supports the idea that they're also able to be happy!

And have you ever seen a dog wag his tail really hard when he's excited about something? We can't know for sure whether a dog feels "happiness" by being so excited, but there's a good chance that it is!





Emotion Detector

Have you ever seen an animal who looked particularly happy or sad? If you have a pet at home, maybe you've noticed changes in his or her behavior when a certain family member goes away or when a good friend comes to visit!

What kinds of emotions do you think your pet feels? What other pets and animals do you think have emotions too?